New Tia Clara Part II

It's official: Tía Clara has been dethroned by New Tía Clara.
Talking about why I didn't like Public Enemies:

Me:
It lacks the pizazz of Bonnie & Clyde, an incredibly violent movie that kind of wrote the book on the American love affair with violence.
New Tía Clara:
Bonnie & Clyde is not so violent. She steals the police car and all, but that's about it.
Me:
Bonnie & Clyde created a new standard of glorified, operatic violence. And at least you could tell that Warren Beatty and Fay Dunaway got a kick out of it.
New Tía Clara:
Isn't Bonnie & Clyde that movie where the little old woman falls in love with the young man?
Me (after gasping in sheer amazement):
That's Harold & Maude.

Be a patriot: scorn Sarah Palin.

It is the patriotic duty of every American citizen to heap unlimited amounts of scorn and vitriol on the topic of Sarah Palin's resignation and her future political hopes. The mere fact of her political existence is already surreal, pathetic and ridiculous, as is the entire Republican party, which is having a decadence as grotesque and revolting as Nero's Rome. However, it is our duty to remind her in no uncertain terms that she and her party demean and diminish the great civic achievement of our last Presidential election. In this historical moment, the citizens singlehandedly delivered this country from the clutches of indecency, and saved and helped restore the last shred of dignity of our political system.
Nobody knows why she is doing what she is doing. She is either having a meltdown or planning to run for president. Let us pray it's the former and not the latter, because she is unfit for public life. I think we should all be tired of the grotesque humiliations we endured for eight years and should countenance no more from the likes of her.
One thing is clear: She recently signed a lucrative contract to "write" a book.
The sheer absurdity of it all.

Mexican Inefficiency Spreads to the Swine Flu

Apparently the Swine Flu is inefficient in attacking its hosts.
I guess it started in Mexico for a reason.
I know it's in bad taste, but I could not resist.

Land O Crooks

As you know, my dear readers, I come from a country that wrote the book on corruption. Every country on Earth is corrupt, but Mexicans are one of the most ingenious people when it comes to making sure corruption works as well as possible. We can be proud of that.
However, as I near almost 20 years living in the United States, I have had an epiphany recently. This country had always represented to me a place where corruption did not thrive easily. There is rule of law. There are safeguards. There is a strong civic culture, a reputation for decency and fairness, supposedly. But the more time I spend here, and the worse the economy gets, I realize that this is a land of crooks and hypocrites and snake oil salesmen and robber barons with a "your money or your life" mentality. It's a place where PT Barnum's dictum about suckers being born every minute seems to apply to the entire citizenship.
This here is the biggest, most entrenched and institutionalized instance of greasing the palm in the known universe. I say this as an American citizen, because it dawns on me that the entire system of government really functions by corruption. Our vote doesn't really count. As long as companies and lobbyists give money to our elected officials, nothing fundamental is ever going to change. There will be no satisfactory comprehensive universal health care, no matter what Obama says (who probably got oodles from big pharma and insurers). There may not be real transportation reform, there will be no real regulation of the banking system, etc, etc.
I'm sure you are all aware that government here does not work for us, the taxpayers. It works for the corporations. That's why we're all screwed.
For the life of me I don't understand why this entire country is not up in arms and storming the barricades over our lack of a health care system.
Maybe when the shit hits the fan and the fat cows start getting way too lean (or in our pathetically particular case, even fatter because healthy food is too expensive), people are going to get their asses off their couches, turn the idiot box off and scream bloody murder.
Just don't hold your breath.

No wonder they're bankrupt

According to The New Yorker, the state of "Califonia now spends about two and a half times as much per prison inmate as it does per student in the University of California system".
What a dump.

More Literary Fun

I got this on Facebook. It's purportedly by Oscar Wilde:

"Just be yourself. Everybody else is taken".

He was the best.

Edith Wharton Accused of Being Too Smart

And rightly so. A social newspaper reported on her breakup with her first fiancee:

"The only reason for the breaking of the engagement.. is an alleged preponderance of intellectuality on the part of the intended bride."

Probably the best accusation ever.

The High Line

After what seemed an endless wait, the High Line Park is open on the West side of Manhattan and it is lovely. More than an actual park (no dogs, no bikes, no skates, no booze), it's an example of a great urban public space. It elegantly balances the original elements, like those amazing railings, with a very cool streamlined design.


But what it does really well is to make you notice the landscape of our magnificent city, which in this area still looks industrial and a bit forlorn, which makes it very cool. As any great architecture, it feels like it totally belongs in its context and more, it makes you reevaluate and admire the surroundings, particularly the cool buildings that have sprung up in Chelsea recently. After years of architectural drought (worse, an epidemic of uglyass, boring buildings) we now have a Frank Gehry and a Jean Nouvel across the street from each other, speaking to one another, and a couple other buildings that are fresh and interesting, not just eyesores like the ones Donald Trump likes or regulations permit. We have new, fun buildings to add to our heritage as a marvel of human buildings and that makes me very happy. It also makes me very happy that everyone I saw walking the High Line seemed as happy as me. Smiles of pleasure all around.
I think it's great that dogs, skates, bikes, etc, are not allowed. A nice little civilized bar however would not be out of order. But we still seem to be living in the times of the Mayflower as far as these things are concerned. The High Line has these cool wood chaise longues (some of them doubles!) for basking in the sun.

On Pina Bausch

Well, it's good to know that there are some luminaries of the intelligentsia that get expressions of collective mourning as passionate as those intended for poor Michael or Farrah.
Facebook is ablaze with grief over Pina Bausch. In her case, I must say, I'm incapable of feeling anything because I have seen limited amounts of her work and it's cool but I just don't care. Let's say Expressionistic German modern dance is not my cup of tea. I was utterly annoyed at Almodovar for sticking one interminable piece of hers in the middle of Hable con Ella. It was like cinematic namedropping: P.R.E.T.E.N.T.I.O.U.S.
I respect all of those who are shedding tears over her demise. Some of them are my best friends! Seriously, many of them are people whose tastes I respect. I guess there is no arguing with taste.
But Bausch seems to be one of those cultural icons that one is supposed to admire, like Tarkovsky or Meredith Monk or Robert Wilson (or most of BAM's programming), or if you will excuse and forgive me, Godard: artists with difficult reputations and insufferable works, yet that furnish you with instant cultural cred. It's a bit like eating broccoli or eggplant or tofu, not altogether palatable but supposedly very good for you.
So call me a Philistine.

Letter to the Mayor

It's starting again, my letter writing season, my raving ranting season...
This is the text of a letter I sent to Mayor Bloomberg and to the commissioner of the Department of Sanitation of our gross, filthy city:

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
I recently spent a month in Europe, visiting several cities: Málaga, Barcelona, Paris, Dijon, Amsterdam, Cannes. Whether big capitals or smaller towns, they all struck me by their cleanliness. None of them had mountains of garbage bags obstructing the sidewalks and communities of rats scuttling back and forth among the garbage. All of them have municipal garbage collection. All of them have garbage disposal containers to deposit garbage bags out of plain sight.
Why doesn't NY have municipal garbage collection? Why is this left to private companies? I love NYC's grit as much as anyone, but the garbage blight in this town is intolerable.
It is appalling that New York City is the greatest city in the world and we look and smell like a sewer.
I hope you plan to address this issue if you get reelected. Respectfully,